Remote vehicles are increasingly being used in military operations for tasks such as ordnance or explosives handling or disposal, field reconnaissance, terrain mapping, and various other procedures. These remote vehicles are commonly equipped with various devices for sensing environmental information, including video cameras, and have been used to scout hostile positions in urban and non-urban environments.
Aerial, satellite, and short range reconnaissance may provide valuable information to enhance the usefulness of remote vehicles by providing location and mapping information for both controlled and autonomous operation. However, such reconnaissance may only provide limited information regarding certain characteristics of the proximal environment, and particularly, areas around and under the remote vehicle. Accurate and up-to-date information of the vehicle's proximal environment may allow the vehicle to maneuver through the environment safely and reliably, and thus, may enhance its ability to successfully accomplish either operator-controlled or autonomous high-level goals.